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Bloodhounds & Baloney

By Ed Frawley

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On last night's national news (8-05-02) there was yet another segment on the fictitious abilities of bloodhounds that can smell ghosts and track gremlins. It seems that a few bloodhound handlers have convinced unknowing government officials that their bloodhounds can get odor from the envelope of the letters that were mailed with anthrax.

It seems these dogs were then able to "SHOW INTEREST" in David Hatfield's apartment. Hattfield is an unnamed suspect in the anthrax case.

Let me be the first one to say that this is a scam on the part of these dog handlers. It is bad dog handling and it is bad law enforcement. The FBI should know better. At least one FBI agent has visited the scent identification training centers in Nunspeet Holland. Nunspeet is one of the top K9 scent identification training centers in the world.

After his visit, this FBI agent then wrote an article on K9 Scent Identification of Humans for the FBI newsletter which is sent out to all 28,000 FBI agents around the country. I will guarantee you that this article did not make any claims that bloodhounds can magically (through the expert training of Billy Bob) identify people and "SHOW INTEREST" in suspects from scent collected from letters that criminals sent months ago.

Nunspeet bases its training on scientific work that was performed by Dr. Adee Schoon - a Dutch Ph.D. who did a thesis (which I have a copy of sitting on my desk) titled "The performance of dogs in identifying humans by scent". This thesis is the basis for all training and court work on the Dutch scent ID dogs.

Dr. Schoon's work is based on sound science. Her study dealt extensively with forensic practice and continuing training, evaluation of the performance of operational dogs (a three-year study 1991 to 1993), and reliability between the Analysis of Old and Newly Developed Methods.

I have been to both the Federal Police Dog Schools in Nunspeet and Rotterdam Holland. I can tell you that only very special dogs with very extensive training in scent identification under a controlled environment can be used to identify humans from collected and stored scents. I can also tell you that these bloodhound handlers have not had this training. No dog in the United States has had this training.

I would bet every penny I own that if these bloodhounds were taken to Holland and asked to identify humans from properly collected and stored scent these bloodhounds would not have a clue. It would be embarrassing.

This article is not about David Hatfield. The article is about the scam that these bloodhound handlers once again are playing games with the scenting abilities of their dogs. Their overstated claims are the reason that the scenting abilities of bloodhounds are being questioned in more and more courts. Judges are not stupid. It does not take long to blow holes in the claims that these guys are making about their dog's scenting abilities.

To: Ed Frawley

From: Kathy

My name is Brett Mancino and I am an attorney in Cleveland, Ohio. I read your article about bloodhounds and their tracking. The reason I write is because I represent a man charged with murder and bloodhounds are part of the evidence. I do not believe, however, that this evidence under the facts they have presented are reliable.

The facts are: a bloodhound was brought to assist in a murder investigation almost thirty days after the victim went missing and after her body had been discovered. The police are claiming thier bloodhound "scented" at three separate locations. One location was at the passenger side door of my client's van as it sat in the impound lot. The strange thing about this is that I came across a police report that showed they attempted to do this same thing a month earlier with two dogs and the result was "negative." It was after this first attempt, they returned the van and then re-seized it some time later for the bloodhound.

I have the legal brief written that should help exclude this evidence, but I was looking for someone who may be able to assist in testifying or showing that this "scenting" was contaminated and unreliable. In this case, there is good reason to believe some inappropriate things have happened with the investigation in light of the political pressure to solve it.

Do you think what I have told you sounds unreliable and should not be admitted in front of a jury?

Thank you,
Brett Mancino, Esq.

Ed's Response

Let me begin by saying that I don't testify against law enforcement. That's a personal choice.

But I also don't agree with bad dog training and untruthful use of dogs in law enforcement.

In my opinion, what you are telling me is impossible. This bloodhound handler fits the mold of exactly what I have problems with on other bloodhound handlers. Guys like this destroy the credibility of other honest dog handlers. There are many good, honest, hard-working bloodhound handlers out there. These are people who are well-trained that work hard at training and that know the limitation of their dogs scenting ability. This handler does not fit into that category.

I can tell you that this evidence would never stand for one minute in Canada or Holland or one of the European countries that rely on science and training to back up the use of dogs in police work.

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About Author

Ed Frawley

Ed Frawley is the founder of Leerburg. He has been training dogs since the 1950s. For 30 years, Ed bred working bloodline German Shepherds and has produced over 350 litters. During this time, Ed began recording dog training videos and soon grew an interest in police service dogs. His narcotic dogs have been involved in over 1,000 narcotics searches resulting in hundreds of arrests in the state of Wisconsin. Ed now solely focuses on producing dog training courses with renowned dog trainers nationwide. If you want to learn more about Ed, read about his history here.